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So Kirk Cameron is trying to tackle the Problem of Evil. This should be … interesting. Here’s the trailer, which consists mainly of Cameron over-emoting and trying to look dramatic, spliced with pictures of a funeral. Minus points for gratuitous banjo.

While I have no more skin in the game, I’m always open to discussions of the problem of evil. But it’s an old, old question that has only gotten more vexing as our awareness of human suffering has increased. The answer has to make some kind of sense while also being emotionally satisfying.

Cameron, and his friend Ray Comfort, specialize in pithy answers to serious questions. Their goal has always seemed to be creating the perfect one-line response to the problems of Christian faith. I honestly can’t imagine them being able to thread the needle and come out with a real answer.

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I read that last line, and all I could think about was the need for a Comfort/Cameron variation on Matthew 19:24: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is richproduces crappy movies and apologetic drivel to enter the kingdom of God.”

Bruce Wright

Wow, he came out the other side of the meat grinder with his faith “stronger than ever”. Whew. THAT was totally unpredictable! He was walking the edge of a knife blade for a second. He REALLY wrestled with doubt there!

coljos

Interested to see what kind of surface level material this will be. I’ll bet that God’s plan is bigger than we can understand. If God is all good then why are so many Christian movies bad…the new problem of evil

Bruce Wright

That’s exactly an anti-apologetic argument I like: one of the disproofs of god’s existence is the clumsyness of the arguments for it. The clutzyier the crappy tract that looks like a lost $100 bill or whatever, (like Ray Comfort prints), the CHEAPER the gimmick, the more likely it’s a scam.

The fact that nobody needs to pull cheap gimmicks like that to convince anyone of the existence of gravity or the tides but DOES need one to convince people of something supposedly more foundational to reality, is a thorny issue.

It’s also, I think, a great back-pocket response to leafletters and other pushy Comfort-esque nonsense-peddlers. “Your existence here, passing out this garbage is proof god doesn’t exist. As an atheist, I’m GLAD you’re out here passing it out! Please continue!!!”

Keulan

Kirk Cameron and all the other theists who believe in a loving god have to invent all sorts of excuses for why that god allows suffering. I’m glad I don’t have to do that sort of mental gymnastics. The problem of evil goes away when you stop believing in a god.

MNb

I have always wondered what Cameron or any other apologist would say if Elisabeth Fritzl walked in and asked him for meaning for her suffering. Free will defense? That implies that the free will of her raping father has more value than hers. I still have to meet the first apologist who even thinks about this point.

http://www.worldsworstmoms.com/ Tammy

Maybe this is just a government conspiracy to get all true believers in the same place at the same time. Or maybe it’s Kirk — Kirk is actually working for the Dark Lord! Mystery solved.